Fluvanna Referendum Petition Valid

by Douglas R. Johnson
July 20, 2009

The validity of the Citizen Petition for Referendum on Fluvanna Joint Water Authority is the subject of today's filing with the State Corporation Commission by Petitioner Douglas Johnson. Up until now, the whole thrust of the legal action was strictly on procedural matters.

Fluvanna County Attorney, Fred Payne, made two points which may very well bring this matter to a quick end with the citizen finally getting the right to vote on the formation of the Joint Water Authority.

The first point Mr. Payne made is that the same action cannot be in two different Courts with the same parties. Mr. Johnson has used that point to demonstrate that the fact that the State Corporation Commission is a Court of Record on relatively equal footing with the Fluvanna Circuit Court make the filing with the Commission could not be valid with the action already started in the Fluvanna Circuit Court.

The second point Mr. Payne made is that the James River Water Authority was formed under the Virginia Water and Waste Authority Act and not under the Virginia Nonstock Corporation Act. This is very significant because the result is that the opinion of the Clerk of the Commission published June 30, 2009 was erroneous in that it relied on the wrong law.

This basically puts the procedural behind us. We now need to move to the actual merits of the case, namely, were the petitions valid or not. No one disputes the fact that if the petitions were valid, then the filing with the Commission "did not conform to law".

The details of the case for the validity of the petitions can be seen on www.FluvannaBlog.com where all the filings made with the State Corporation Commission are posted.